The Week in Reviews: William Gibson, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack White, and More

“Reading early Gibson today is fascinating in the way that collecting vintage watches would be fascinating: one is struck by a sense of time stilled and held in the hand, of possible futures frozen and suspended as technology brings new ones into being.” – Laurie Penny onWilliam Gibson at The New Inquiry.

“Lord includes just the right amount of vintage Hollywood gossip and pop-culture history to remind us what women (and men and Elizabeth) were (and are) up against, providing context for her astute readings of the flicks.” At Bookforum, The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted by Her Beauty to Noticeis reviewed by Rhonda Lieberman.

“As with all things related to Jack White and other lovers of the blues, the relationship between these songs and reality might be a highly theatrical one.” – Nitsuh Abebe on Jack White’s solo outing at Vulture.

He is convinced there is a white whale underneath cricket’s thick conspiratorial net—a pure example of athletic brilliance, in the form of a mysterious Tamil spin bowler named Predeep Mathew—and he has dedicated his waning years to finding and documenting Mathew’s controversial and short-lived career. -Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Legend of Pradeep Mathew is reviewed at the KGB Bar website.